Patrick Comerford
After a furtive flurry rushing through Kuala Lumpur International Airport, dashing from a flight from Muscat to catch a flight to Kuching late on Thursday night and early on Friday morning, I put aside entertaining any dreams of snatching a few hours in the Malaysian capital, of perhaps even visiting the Anglican cathedral in Kuala Lumpur.
The Cathedral of Saint Mary the Virgin or Saint Mary’s Cathedral is the cathedral of the Diocese of West Malaysia in the Anglican Church of the Province of South-East Asia. From one small congregation in a simple wooden building in the 19th century on the present site beside Independence Square or Dataran Merdeka, the cathedral community has grown into 10 diverse and active congregations that form one cathedral community.
The original church dedicated to the Virgin Mary and was consecrated by Bishop George Frederick Hose, Bishop of Singapore, Labuan and Sarawak, on 13 February 1887. This early church was built of timber on Bluff Road, on top of a hill now known as Bukit Aman, where the headquarters of the Royal Malaysian Police are now located. It served a small number of Anglicans in Kuala Lumpur at the time, and the parishioners at that time included the British Residents of Selangor, Sir William Hood Treacher (1849-1919) and Sir Frank Swettenham (1850-1946), later Resident-General of the Federated Malay States and Governor of the Straits Settlements.
With a growing congregation, a decision was taken in 1893 to build a new church and a new site was found beside the Padang or Parade Ground of the Selangor Club, now known as Dataran Merdeka or Independence Square. The congregation raised the funds to build a new church a further 5,000 Straits dollars came as a gift from the government of Selangor with the support of the Governor of the Straits Settlements, Sir Cecil Clementi Smith (1840-1916), a grandson of the composer Muzio Clementi (1752-1832) who lived at the end of his life in Lichfield in Lincroft House, now the Hedgehog Vintage Inn.
The foundation stone was laid on 3 February 1894 by the British Resident of Selangor, Sir William Treacher, and the service was led by Bishop Hose. It was the first brick church in the so-called native States of the Malay Peninsula and it was consecrated by Bishop Hose on 9 February 1895.
The church was designed by the government Arthur Charles Alfred Norman (1858-1944), whose design was based on Early English Gothic architecture. Norman contributed to the design of some of Malaysia’s most important buildings in the historic core of Kuala Lumpur lining the perimeter of Merdeka Square, including the Sultan Abdul Samad Building (1897), the Royal Selangor Club, the Residence of the British Resident of Selangor (1888), the Victoria Institution (1893) and Kuala Lumpur Library (1909).
Norman designed Saint Mary’s Church with a nave that is 87 ft long by 28 ft wide, and a chancel 29 ft long by 22 ft wide with an octagonal end, along with a vestry and organ chamber. The nave can hold a congregation of 180 people and the chancel a choir of 20.
The back of the main sanctuary was extended in 1958 to accommodate a hall named the Jubilee Hall. Later developments have included a multi-purpose hall, as well as offices for the clergy and a studio apartment.
The pipe organ in the church is a second-hand built in 1898 by Henry Willis (‘Father Willis’), the English organ maker who also built the organ of Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London, and the original grand organ in the Royal Albert Hall. One of his organs is also in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford.
The organ was originally bought by Frederic Duberly, the Acting Resident of Pahang, for his personal use in 1898. Duberly died of a heart attack on 3 April 1903, and his organ was packed up and shipped to Kuala Lumpur. It was installed in Saint Mary’s in 1904 and dedicated on 7 August 1904 but it was soon dismantled after a dispute over its legal ownership. The church eventually paid Duberly’s executors $2,000 in 1915, and the organ was then installed on the north side of the church.
The organ was damaged in two floods in 1925 and 1926 and repaired and then moved to its present position in the loft. The organ was rebuilt in 1927, when most of the wooden pipes, the pedal board, the wind chest, and some of the keys were replaced. It was badly damaged again during World War II and was completely rebuilt in 1951.
Canon Paul GT Samuel laid the foundation stone for a two-storey annexe on 28 April 1968. This annexe replaced the ‘old wooden parish hall on stilts’ was dedicated by Bishop Chiu Ban It, Bishop of Singapore and Malaya, on 5 February 1969.
The Diocese of West Malaysia, covering the entire West Malaysia, and the Diocese of Singapore were formed out of the former Diocese of Singapore and Malaya in 1970, and Saint Mary’s Church became the seat of the Bishop of West Malaysia. Saint Mary’s Church was proclaimed the Cathedral Church of Saint Mary the Virgin by the Bishop of West Malaysia, Bishop Tan Sri JG Savarimuthu on 8 September 1983.
The Church of the Province of South East Asia, with four dioceses, was formed on 2 February 1996, with the dioceses of Kuching, Sabah, Singapore and West Malaysia. It includes most of South-East Asia as well as Nepal, apart from Myanmar and the Philippines.
The cathedral was designated a National Heritage building of Malaysia in 2014. Today, Saint Mary’s stands in a strategic location in the most historical and charming section of Kuala Lumpur.
The Right Revd Dr Stephen Soe is the Bishop of West Malaysia and the Very Revd Andrew Cheah is the Dean of Kuala Lumpur Cathedral.
The cathedral has three traditional liturgical services in English on Sundays: Said Eucharist (7 am), a Sung Eucharist with choir (9 am), and a said Family Eucharist with choir (11 am). Other Sunday services include the three ‘Contemporary Sunday Services’ at 9 am off-site at Wisma Anglican, at 11 am and at 5 pm in the Multipurpose Hall beside the cathedral.
In addition. an Iban Service for the Iban congregation, made up mainly of ethnic Iban migrants from Sarawak, is held at 8 am on Sunday mornings in the Multi-Purpose Hall. There are Bahasa Malaysia services at 11 am and 3 pm in the Lady Chapel, mainly for people from Sabah and Sarawak.
After all the fuss and frenzy of changing flights and catching flights on Thursday night and Friday morning, I never did get into Kuala Lumpur and I never got to see Saint Mary’s Cathedral. Perhaps I may share some of my impressions of the airport in the next day or two. And, perhaps, I may even look at the opportunities to visit Kuala Lumpur itself on my return journey at the end of next week.
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